"Who Found Who" by Jellybean

Song#:  3189
Date:  07/11/1987
Debut:  73
Peak:  16
Weeks:  15
Genre:  Dance-Pop



Pop Bits:  Producer/remixer John Benitez, aka Jellybean, scored a Pop Top 20 hit in 1985 with "Sidewalk Talk" (#18 Pop/#1 Dance), a song written by his former girlfriend Madonna. It was featured on his 1984 debut album Wotupski!?! Three years after that debut, Jellybean moved from EMI America to Chrysalis Records and recorded his follow-up effort Just Visiting This Planet. This first single got things kicked off and the results were similar to his previous hit. It got inside the Pop Top 20 while reaching #3 at Dance. It was a good hit, but it didn't do much to spur sales of the album, which peaked at a low #101.

ReduxReview:  Jellybean didn't expand his sound too much here. He was still treading the Madonna dance-pop waters with this track. It was an okay song that was well produced, but it was really Fiorillo's vocals (see below) that helped it along. The album was kind of strange in that Jellybean did a lot behind the scenes production-wise, but didn't sing any lead vocals and only co-wrote one song. However, other more famous musicians have done the same thing (Quincy Jones' 1982 Grammy-winning The Dude, for one). I would have thought that he might have at least wrote more tunes, but it seemed he just wanted to direct and not really be the star, even though he got top billing. This song was a medium-sized hit that for the most part has since been forgotten.

ReduxRating:  5/10

Trivia:  Jellybean was mainly known as a producer and remixer. While he could carry a tune and would occasionally sing background vocals, Jellybean chose to not take the lead vocal role on his tracks. He brought in other more capable vocalists to head up his tunes. For his Just Visiting This Planet album, Jellybean had three singers perform the tracks; Adele Bertei, Steven Dante, and Elisa Fiorillo, who sang the lead on "Who Found Who." Fiorillo's career got kicked off when she won the Junior Vocalist category of the talent competition TV show Star Search in 1985. She later signed with Chrysalis Records and recorded the song "Jackie" for the soundtrack to the Mark Harmon comedy flick Summer School, which got the attention of Jellybean. In addition to performing on his album, Fiorillo would issue out her own debut LP in 1987 that would spawn two Pop chart singles.

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